The University of Memphis baseball team (14-11) split the series with Middle Tennessee Wednesday evening in the second game of a two-game series, 6-4.
Freshman Colin Lee made his first career start for the Tigers and gave a leadoff walk to the Middle Tennessee batter. After the walk, an errant pickoff throw led to the runner on third with no outs. Lee struck out the next batter, but the run eventually scored on a one-out single, making the score 1-0. Lee finished the inning without allowing another run, and pitched two more scoreless innings.
The Tigers got on the board in the bottom of the first by taking a 4-1 lead. The Blue Raiders gave up two walks, and sophomore Tucker Tubbs drove both runners in with a single to left field. After a third walk in the bottom of the first, redshirt junior Drew Griffin drove a pitch down the left field line, scoring the other two runs.
The Tigers squandered a chance to add runs in the bottom of the second inning when they had runners at second and third with one out. Blue Raiders pitcher Kooper Kessler got out of the inning with a groundout and fly out.
Middle Tennessee scored three times in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game, 4-4. The Blue Raiders started the inning with back-to-back singles and the runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch by junior reliever Jonathan Van Eaton. Middle Tennessee cut into the lead with an RBI groundout to make the game 4-2. After an RBI double cut the lead to one, Ryan Stephens hit a sacrifice fly to tie game but left a runner at third to end the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers had back-to-back singles putting runners on the corners with one out. Memphis executed the "squeeze play" in which junior infielder Ethan Gross laid down a bunt and the runner from third darted home. Utility man Bryce Beeler drove in the final run on a single to center, giving Memphis a 6-4 lead.
Senior relief pitcher Clayton Gant entered the game in the fifth and was nearly unhittable to the Blue Raiders. Gant pitched five scoreless innings to pick up his first win since April 17, 2011. He allowed three hits over five innings and struck out four and issued no walks. The four strikeouts were a career high for Gant.
The Memphis Tigers jump back into conference play when they host the Houston Cougars at FedExPark this weekend.
The Cougars come into the series ranked No. 19 in the nation, which is their first ranking since cracking the Top 25 in 2006.
"Houston is a really good team," head coach Daron Schoenrock said. "They are getting outstanding starts and getting a lot of production from new position players."
Houston owns the series 36-12 since it began in 1997. However, the Tigers won the past two series in 2012 (2-1) and 2011 (2-1). The last time the teams met was for the C-USA Championship last year in Pearl, Miss. with the Cougars winning 7-3.
"We have to protect our home turf," Schoenrock said. "Even the top team in each conference doesn't have a great record on the road, so in these 11 games we have to do better than .500."
The starting pitchers for the weekend series are Daniel Poncedeleon (3-2, 3.28 ERA) for Houston against Sam Moll (4-1, 2.78 ERA) and Austin Pruitt (5-1, 2.36 ERA) against Erik Schoenrock (3-1, 2.21 ERA). Houston has not announced a starting pitcher for the game Sunday afternoon while Alex Gunn (1-2, 1.52 ERA) will take the mound for the Tigers.
The first pitch Friday is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., with game time Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. All three games will be played at FedExPark.
